Fleets, technology vendors, insurance carriers, and regulators met together in Indianapolis, Indiana for the ATA’s 2021 Safety, Security, and Human Resources conference. During the event, the Idelic team had the opportunity to sit in on a number of educational sessions covering a wide array of topics. Here are our takeaways:
#1: Positive Driver Engagement is Key to Reducing Turnover
With driver turnover rates sitting at an industry average of 90%, the need to pursue effective retention strategies is strong. By calling out and celebrating positive behaviors displayed by drivers in difficult situations, managers can ensure their best drivers get the recognition they deserve.
Even more important than positive driver engagement is regular, positive driver engagement. Learn more on using technology like driver management platforms to regularly engage drivers in our eBook “3 Steps to Success: Understand, Identify, & Address Your Fleet’s Driver Turnover.”
#2: Pre-Screening Drivers is an Essential Aspect of Reducing Fleet Liability
With $1+ million verdicts 335% more common than five years ago and the average size of a large verdict is up 967% over the same time period, fleets are looking for ways to reduce their liability. Chief among these is pre-employment screening: in 100% of crash-related trials where a driver’s history was used as evidence against the defendant fleet, that fleet lost or was forced to settle. Failing to adequately pre-screen drivers can be a costly decision.
#3: Accountability in a Fleet’s Training Program is Key to its Success
Similar to pre-screening procedures, failing to adequately train drivers can be a costly decision for fleets. An emergent theme among SS&HR was that the key to training success is accountability in your training & onboarding procedures. Ensuring lessons are delivered on time, at consistent intervals, and are being effectively delivered is essential for ensuring lessons given in training take root.
When a fleet’s driver managers aren’t accountable to a training plan, or their executives don’t have visibility into their training process, leadership can’t be surprised if their program yields middling results.
How to Better Engage Drivers, Reduce Liability, and Improve Training
To take control of the disparate data from your ELDs, cameras, training software, HR tools, asset management systems, and more, you need a solution that gives you control of your data in a single platform.
The Idelic Safety Suite® is the most comprehensive driver management platform in the trucking industry, consolidating all of a fleet’s disparate technology systems under a single platform. By bringing all fleet data together, departments share data between themselves from all of their third-party systems, ensuring every member of a fleet is accountable to one another and has the access to information they need to engage drivers.
If you’d like to learn more about how Safety Suite helps fleets break down barriers between their departments to retain drivers, reduce liability, and improve training, watch a 2-minute demo video or sign up for a consultation with a safety expert here.